Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the predicted mood for Fieldays 2024

It's a big week for the rural community, as crowds flock to Waikato for Fieldays 2024.

From June 12 to 15, people will gather at Mystery Creek for the 56th running of the largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Country host is predicting a 'subdued' mood from attendees ahead of this year's event.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jamie mckaye Hosts of the Countries with us Ay Jamie
get A Heather. I'm coming to you from a top
of the Bombay Hills, just flowing into Auckland. Were making
our way down to Hamilton for day one of field
Days tomorrow. I know you've got Wayne Langford coming up
very shortly on Hewoker Echinoa being kicked for touch. I say,

(00:20):
not before time, so I don't really want to steal
his thunder on the subject, But feel free to ask
me any questions. What do you reckon? The vibe is
going to be at field Days. Look, it'll be subdued,
I think, especially for people with big ticket items, and
I'm talking the tractors, the utes, that sort of thing. Look,

(00:40):
there's no spare there's no spare cash and farming and
any of the farming systems at the moment, and especially
when I look at sheep and beef, especially sheep, but
they're in the doldrums. It's as bad as it's been
since the nineteen eighties. However, we have had a positive
a few positive GDT auctions heading into this. Kiwi Fruit's

(01:01):
going really well and I think the main purpose of
field Days, and I'm sure that the people selling scaler
up red bands and Swan drives will do just fine,
and the food people will do just fine. But I
just think that the main thing about field Days is
to get off arm, go and have a look, even
if you're only tire kicking and a bit of networking.

(01:22):
Good for the soul heather. And do you think it
will buck their their spirits a little bit up to
hear that they're out of the ets. Yeah? Absolutely, Look
I know, well I'm quoting Wayne Langford here, even though
he's coming on. He said the previous government were too
focused on pricing farmers. This is for their emissions obviously
driving and this is a good quote, driving blindly towards

(01:45):
unachievable political, unscientific methane reduction targets. And when they were
talking about up to forty seven percent, that was the
end of livestock farming as we know it in this country.
We were at the bleeding edge heather rather than the
lead edge. And I'm a big fan of the market.
I'm starting to sound like Roger Douglas or David Seymour here,

(02:06):
but the best way to get farmers to reduce the
missions And I had this argument with Damian O'Connor on
My show today, actually produced by Andy Duff, who's done
doing the hard yards, doing yours. I had the argument
with them that, honestly, if you want farmers to change
their behavior, reduce their emissions, give them a premium. It's

(02:26):
just like when organics came in. If there's a premium,
farmers will do it. That'll be fine at the moment
as it stands right at the moment, despite what the
likes of Damien says, there isn't a premium, so it
will happen. It's like Rachel Hunter's here, but it won't
happen overnight. Jamie, good on. You go and enjoy yourself,
appreciate it. Jamie McKay, host of the Country. For more

(02:47):
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